HIST 423: Cultural History of World War I
Professor Bruno Cabanes
Meanings in Canada’s Vimy Ridge Memorial
By Michael Birnbaum
The massive memorial stretches up toward the sky, its monstrous twin pylons
looking like something from an old horror movie. The pylons sit on a tall, wide
pedestal whose walls slope outwards and resemble an Egyptian mastaba. On the edge
of the pedestal, a grieving, shrouded woman gazes down on a representation of a
tomb. The Canadian National Vimy Memorial dominates the summit of the Vimy
Ridge in the Pas-de-Calais département of France. Its location commemorates the
battle that took place on April 9, 1917, in which Canadian troops, succeeding where
British and French troops had failed, pushed the German trench line back three
kilometers. 3,598 Canadians died in the operation, the largest single Canadian loss of
life in the war.1 It is generally understood in Canada that the battle won their nation a
seat at the Paris Peace Conference (as opposed to being represented by the United
Kingdom) and thus a full independent statehood. The Vimy Memorial therefore is
seen as commemorating not only Canada’s war dead, but also a larger moment in
Canada’s journey to nationhood. Ceremonies that take place at the monument are
nationalistic and popular imagination has it that “Canada came of age at Vimy
Ridge.”2 But the memorial itself conveys almost none of this meaning. The statuary is
extremely pacifistic and funereal; its symbolism represents the horrors of war and not
1
2
Pierre Berton, Vimy (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1986), 278.
Ibid., 294.
1
at all the joys of nationhood. Scholars such as Antoine Prost and Jay Winter have
examined the meanings of memorials. Prost especially has devoted great attention to
the greater implications of imagery in war monuments. What the Vimy Memorial
demonstrates, however, is that society is capable of projecting meaning on a memorial
to such an extent that the original intent of the memorial is completely ignored and
forgotten.
Canada’s Involvement in World War I
Canada received limited independence under Articles of Confederation in
1867, but it was still largely under British control at the outset of World War I.
Canadian troops had fought under British direction in the Boer War; most FrenchCanadians had thoroughly objected. When Britain declared war in 1914, Canada
became legally at a state of war too, and this time involvement was met with both
Anglo- and French-Canadian support. Canada committed troops heavily, initially
under British Imperial command. But the Canadian government soon asserted a right
to command its own soldiers; Britain was not in a position to say no. Canada
controlled its military independently for the rest of the war. Enlistment was initially
voluntary, but by 1917 a draft was enacted. This largely alienated French-Canadians;
war fervor had worn off and they did not like to be mandated to fight a war that they
saw as on behalf of Britain. Nevertheless, Canada’s efforts paid—autonomy was
2
affirmed with a seat at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, and the country received
complete governmental freedom from the King of England in 1931.3
Some historians question whether the battle at Vimy Ridge was truly the
source of Canada’s increased post-war autonomy. The battle itself, after all, was only
a limited tactical victory.4 Perhaps Vimy was simply convenient shorthand for a
larger and more complicated set of processes that started before World War I and
ended some time after.5 But the popular Canadian perception of Vimy is still that it
was the single turning point of Canadian nationhood. It is taught as such in Canada to
this day.6 Regardless of reality, therefore, the Vimy Memorial is seen in Canada as a
nationalistic monument.
Why Study War Memorials?
Far more memorials were built after World War I than after any preceding
conflict, perhaps because the effects of the war were so wide-reaching. Most were
small memorials that one might find in a town square or any public space (Beinecke
Plaza, originally called Memorial Plaza, at Yale is one such example). Some, such as
the one at Vimy, were major projects sponsored by the government. Who constructed
a memorial obviously has relevance to its meaning, but memorials can and do also
stand alone. Iconography in a memorial can show how a society conceived of the war
3
Kenneth McNaught, The Penguin History of Canada (London: Penguin Books, 1988), 213-220.
Berton, 296.
5
Ibid., 294-5.
6
Andréa Picard, “Restoring Loss at Vimy,” Canadian Architect 05/06 (2005) 74.
4
3
and of the sacrifice soldiers made when they were killed. Ceremonies surrounding a
memorial can show how a society relates to the war, and the way those ceremonies
change over time can also be used to show the changes in a society’s relationship to
the war. Memorials eventually become the only physical remnants of war as life
moves on. Monuments are sites where meaning is produced by ceremonies that occur
around them, and they contain inherent meaning as well.7 As the Vimy Memorial
demonstrates, sometimes these two competing meanings have no relation.
History of Construction of the Memorial
In 1922 France granted 100 hectares of land at Vimy to Canada in perpetuity,
in gratitude for the Canadian successes during the war. A competition was held soon
after to determine the designer of the memorial; Walter Allward, a sculptor from
Toronto, was selected out of a pool of 160. Various accounts have the memorial
coming to him in a dream, or in a few bold strokes on a napkin.8 Work began in 1925
and was finished in 1936. Part of the reason it took so long to build was that
construction had to be done very slowly and carefully; there were so many
unexploded mines and shells that excavation could be very dangerous. Allward tried
to find stone that would last to build his memorial; he eventually settled on a scarce
type of Yugoslavian limestone. Allward had gotten the idea from seeing Roman
7
Ken Inglis, “War memorials: ten questions for historians,” Guerres Mondiales et Conflits Contemporains
167 (July 1992), 8-9. See also Jay Winter, Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1995), 78-116.
8
Gerald W.L. Nicholson, “We will remember…”: Overseas Memorials to Canada’s War Dead (Ottawa: The
Minister of Veterans Affairs for Canada, 1973), 33. And D.E. Macintyre, Canada at Vimy (Toronto:
Peter Martin Associates, 1967), 153.
4
Emperor Diocletian’s 3rd century palace at Spalato in Dalmatia; since the palace had
not weathered over the years, the sculptor reasoned, similar stone would be
appropriate for the memorial. Allward intended for Vimy to be enduring.9
Physical Space at Vimy
The Vimy Memorial surmounts Hill 145, the tallest point of Vimy Ridge. It is
a natural location for a memorial; it was the most strategically important spot in the
German defenses during their several-year occupation of the area, and it is the most
visible point for kilometers. Hill 145’s capture, therefore, was perhaps the proudest
achievement of Canadian forces during the Great War.
The memorial is approached from a road to the west. Most of the statuary on
the memorial faces east, however, and looks over a flat field where the German
fortifications once lay. So one does not encounter the memorial head on, in
confrontation with its statuary—one walks up to the figures from behind, standing
next to them, and sharing their pain. The statuary looks east onto a large triangle of
leveled grass where once stood soldiers and the machinery of war. Around that sea of
flat grass that is sent forth from the memorial, is extremely irregular, pockmarked
terrain like a Martian landscape. The memorial therefore seems to be projecting
tranquility into the battlefield, calming the shock of war.
The twin design of the memorial pylons also echoes its surroundings. Looking
east from the Vimy Memorial, one can see the town of Lens, and, behind it, two
9
Macintyre, 153-4.
5
identical neighboring mountains. These may actually be man-made products of coal
mining, but even if they are, they would have been present when Allward designed
the memorial.10 The twin pylons echo these two mountains and connect the
monument to the landscape around it.
Statuary at Vimy
The Vimy Memorial contains twenty stylized human figures, each twice lifesize.11 A quick catalog: six figures representing Charity, Honor, Justice, Faith, Peace,
and Sacrifice; two guardian angels; a dying soldier handing his torch to a comrade
who holds it aloft; a man and a woman representing the mourning mothers and fathers
of the nation; a female figure representing Canada, looking down on a sarcophagus; a
youth breaking a sword next to two other youths looking into the distance; and one
erect figure stretching his hand out to three kneeling and bowing figures around him,
representing Canada’s sympathy for the oppressed. There are two crosses on the outer
sides of the pylons, and a fleur-de-lis and a crown on opposite corners of the base
wall, representing dual French and British heritage.
Antoine Prost notes four distinct monument styles in French villages: secular
civic monuments, patriotic-republican monuments celebrating victory and sacrifice,
10
David Cale, “Vimy Ridge France 1917,” available from http://www.agenet.co.uk/arts/poetry/vimy%20ridge.htm; Internet; accessed 2 Dec 2006.
11
Macintyre, 155.
6
funerary-patriotic glorifying sacrifice, and pacifistic.12 The Vimy Memorial is by and
large a pacifistic monument, with few patriotic references to Canada but many
references to grief.
When one approaches the monument from the west, one sees two massive
pylons, an angel near the top of each one. A mother and father mourn on either side of
the steps that lead to the pylons. This visitor is immediately confronted with death.
The angels have taken soldiers to heaven, and the parents are left mourning the loss of
their sons. The parents are therefore in theory no different from the mourners who
visit the site—they are there for the same reason. (If one goes to the memorial in a
patriotic mood, though, they will grieve alone, without you.) On this western side
there is no reference to war at all—only to grief and death. As Antoine Prost notes,
referencing death without referencing nation is to take away a patriotic justification
for death, and therefore “to admit the possibility that it might not be entirely
legitimate.”13 There is a flag of Canada and a flag of France at the beginning of the
path to the memorial, but nowhere does the monument claim that the soldiers died for
Canada, and that, therefore, their deaths had a purpose. The monument simply
memorializes Canadian dead.
One walks up the stairs past the mourning parents and arrives directly under
the looming pylons. They are heavy, tapering slightly, perhaps in an attempt to give
them some airiness, but they are not delicate, and are very much rooted to the ground
on which they stand. Walter Allward, the sculptor, said that the two pylons
12
Antoine Prost, “Monuments to the Dead,” in Realms of Memory, ed. Pierre Nora (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1997), 316.
13
Ibid., 315.
7
represented the two forces, Canadian and French, who had worked to overtake the
Vimy Ridge.14 This is plausible; elsewhere on the memorial a small English crown
and a French fleur-de-lis stand carved opposite each other. But these are not patriotic
symbols—they seem more concerned with identifying who the dead were rather than
what they died for.
One cannot walk between the pylons because a statue blocks the passage, so
one is forced to walk around them, making several turns and seeing the entire
panorama of the battlefield along the way. When one looks up at the side of the pylon,
one sees a carving of a cross. This of course is another redemptive symbol, a feature
of a funerary and pacifistic monument.
The statuary on the eastern side of the monument invokes more imagery of
war while remaining extremely pacifistic. The visitor sees first of all the figure of
Canada embodied in a shrouded, mourning, Mary-like woman. She gazes off the edge
of the base where she stands, directing her look twenty feet downwards to the tomb of
a soldier that lies on the level of the battlefield itself. One cannot see the tomb the
moment one sees the woman—one has to look over the edge to understand the
direction of her glance. Initially, therefore, it appears that the woman is simply
standing, head bowed, gazing into nothingness. She holds a bundle of laurel limp at
her side. Laurel is typically a symbol of victory;15 her holding it limp makes the
victory hollow. She brought her laurel to give to a living soldier; instead, she arrived
to find him dead.
14
15
Nicholson, 33.
E. Cobham Brewer, The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (New York: Avenel Books, 1978), 734.
8
The statues behind her, while hardly war-like, are slightly more optimistic. In
between the two pylons are two figures in drapery, presumably soldiers, one who falls
and gives a torch to the other, perhaps to keep alive the memory of the war and of the
fallen. The two soldiers are gaunt—their ribs are clearly visible. Although the men
bear the mark of starvation and death on their flesh, the torch is at least raised. Walter
Allward, the sculptor, said they represent “the Spirit of Sacrifice, who, giving all,
throws his torch to his Comrades.”16 There is no mourning in these figures. But there
is also still no outright patriotism, nothing to show that this is anything more than a
massive funerary monument.
When one looks up from the Spirit of Sacrifice, one sees six figures high on
the pylons. According to the sculptor, these figures represent Peace, Justice, Truth,
Knowledge, Gallantry, and Sympathy. Peace and Justice are at the top, Peace with a
torch upraised, making it the highest point in the region.17 There is nothing
particularly compelling about the statues themselves (all are women covered in
drapery) but it is notable that none of the images on display has to do with war—
rather, all relate to peace. These figures therefore stand on top the monument to
ensure against the return of combat.
Underneath the figures on the pylons, and underneath the gaze of the grieving
representation of Canada, are two more groups of figures. The first group is of three
young men, one of whom crouches and breaks his sword, the other two of whom are
looking wearily upwards and outwards to the future. This is the most directly
16
17
Nicholson, 33.
Ibid.
9
pacifistic statue on the whole monument. Antoine Prost notes that broken swords and
other images of pacifism were quite uncommon in French war memorials, and
presumably they were equally rare in other countries’ memorials as well.18 This group
of figures is overtly anti-war. Above the two groups of figures are cannon barrels
carved into the wall, which have been draped with olive branches, further
symbolizing peace.
At the opposite corner of the base is the second group, which the sculptor
called “The Sympathy of the Canadians for the Helpless.”19 One man stands erect and
proud; he is surrounded by three other figures who are crouched because they are
stricken by disease or pain. All four appear to be starving—their ribs are very
apparent. It is quite graphic and disturbing—the standing man, who is supposed to
represent Canada, is posed as if a Greek warrior, so one does a double take when one
sees his ribs. This grouping of statues challenges accepted notions of heroism.
The last statue is the carved representation of a tomb, which sits in between
the two above groups of figures. Laurel leaves and a helmet lie across the top. The
helmet has nothing to do with war equipment—it is just a sign of respect for the
soldier who lies within the box. The tomb commemorates the man, not the warrior,
who has died. Above the tomb reads, in French and English, “TO THE VALOUR OF
THEIR COUNTRYMEN IN THE GREAT WAR AND IN MEMORY OF THEIR SIXTY
THOUSAND DEAD THIS MONUMENT IS RAISED BY THE PEOPLE OF CANADA.” The
inscription is notable—it makes no mention of soldiers, merely countrymen, and
18
19
Prost, 316.
Nicholson, 33.
10
those countrymen are not dead for Canada; they are merely dead. The military has
been completely left out of the memorial. Vimy in its statuary is a funeral stele, an
homage to the dead, but not a triumphal or at all a militaristic site.
Ceremonies at Vimy
Ceremonies at Vimy invoke much more nationalism than is physically present
within the memorial itself, and Canadian conceptions of the memorial instill this
nationalism. This suggests that a monument need not be nationalistic in content to be
nationalistic in meaning. To take it one step further, the specific content of any
memorial may not have much to do with its greater meaning.
The opening ceremonies of the Vimy Memorial were a major event in
Canadian veteran culture, and a major undertaking too. About 6,400 people sailed on
five steamships from Canada and 1,365 Canadians came from England.20 Called the
“Vimy Pilgrimage,” it is mythologized to this day. The memorial was opened on July
26, 1936 by King Edward VIII in his capacity as King of Canada, and was attended
by high Canadian, British, and European officials, including the president of France.
There was an honor guard of red-clad Mounties and a contingent of Canadian Naval
Guard members with rifles. There were military plane flyovers. And, of course, there
were legions upon legions of veterans. Edward VIII gave a speech, starting in French
and switching to English, thanking France for its generosity and assuring those
assembled that Canada would never forget its war missing and dead. The King
20
Macintyre, 159.
11
unveiled the Union Jack from the central figure of Canada Mourning Her Dead, and
the military band played “The Last Post,” Canada’s version of “Taps.”21 The
ceremony was extremely nationalistic. With the presence of armed and uniformed
troops and the plane flyover, one might even call it a bit militaristic—not at all what
the statuary and design of the memorial actually suggest. So from the very beginning
of the memorial’s history, meaning was projected onto the memorial rather than
drawn from it. The memorial’s message was ignored in favor of what onlookers
wanted to make of it for themselves.
Vimy Today
This trend of overlooking the pacifistic message in the Vimy Memorial in
favor of a nationalist one has continued to the present day. The battle and the
memorial are part of the standard curriculum in Canadian schools, although the battle
is not mentioned at all in textbooks outside the country. One can see this
exceptionalism too in the name given to the battle: in Canada it is the Battle of Vimy
Ridge; in the rest of the world it is just part of the British Battles of Arras.22 Schools
teach that the battle was the crucial factor in Canada’s nationhood, and also teach that
the memorial commemorates this fact. Postage stamps are issued.23 A 2001 novel
21
Ibid., 169-190. See also Desmond Morton and Glenn Wright, Winning the Second Battle: Canadian
Veterans and the Return to Civilian Life, 1915-1930 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987), 221.
22
Berton, 296.
23
Tony Brown, “Stamps and Remembrance,” available from
http://www.rpsc.org/Library/rememberance/remember.htm; Internet; accessed 2 Dec 2006.
12
about Walter Allward and the construction of the monument became a best-seller.24 A
limited-edition nickel was issued by the Royal Canadian Mint in 2002,
commemorating the 85th anniversary of the battle. On one side was Queen Elizabeth.
On the other was the Vimy Memorial.25 Walter Allward was recently declared a
person of national historic significance by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of
Canada.26 There are even amateur videos about Vimy Ridge on YouTube, the popular
internet video-sharing website.27 And the memorial itself is under restoration, a
massive multi-year project that seeks to clean and restore the statuary and make them
as long-lasting as the palace of Emperor Diocletian that inspired Walter Allward to
select the material in the first place. The reopening will be in spring 2007.28
Despite the hoopla, patriotism, and pride that now surrounds the battle and the
memorial, the physical memorial itself remains extremely pacifistic and not especially
nationalistic. In a grim reminder of the ongoing legacy of the war, most of the open
grassy areas near the memorial are roped off to visitors because there are still
unexploded mines. Grass has to be clipped by having sheep graze on it; once or twice
24
Jane Urquhart, The Stone Carvers (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Ltd., 2001).
Ken Polsson, “Chronology of Canadian Coins,” available from
http://www.islandnet.com/~kpolsson/cancoin/can2002.htm; Internet; accessed 2 Dec 2006.
26
Laura Brandon, “Canvas of War and the Vimy Sculptures,” in Canada and the Great War: Western
Association Papers, ed. Briton C. Busch (Montreal: The Western Front Association, 2003), 209.
27
Two of my favorites were a clip of a grunge band called Speedhair singing a terrible song called “Vimy
Ridge” (available from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0GEVuIWgOE), and a little slideshow
about the memorial (available from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmH3SH_t80c).
28
Veterans Affairs Canada, “Vimy Memorial,” available from http://www.vacacc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=memorials/ww1mem/vimy&CFID=8885919&CFTOKEN=95
126741; Internet; accessed 2 Dec 2006.
25
13
a sheep has died when it triggered a mine.29 The reality of the memorial is much
starker than its image in the popular eye.
Conclusions
The memorial at Vimy Ridge is a fascinating example of the power of
ideology over reality. The physical symbolism at the site is extremely pacifistic, nonnationalist, and anti-war. Because of Vimy’s role in Canada’s foundational story,
however, the memorial takes on a role in Canadian imagination that it does not aspire
to in real life. The implications of Vimy in the broader field of memorial scholarship
are clear: it is not enough to derive meaning solely from the monument alone.
Ceremonies and human interactions surrounding the memorial may have so little to
do with the originally intended meaning of the monument that they may be
completely independent, perhaps even contradictory.
29
Picard, 74.
14
Vimy Memorial, view from the road (looking eastwards)
Looking westwards at the Vimy Memorial
15
Canada mourning (looking down on tomb)
In between the pylons, a torch is
passed on
16
One figure breaks a sword while two look into distance.
<- Central figure upright, three figures crouching around him.
17
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Berton, Pierre. Vimy. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1986.
Brandon, Laura. “Canvas of War and the Vimy Sculptures.” In Canada and the Great
War: Western Association Papers. Briton C. Busch, ed. Montreal: The Western
Front Association, 2003.
Brewer, E. Cobham. The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. New York: Avenel Books,
1978.
Brown, Tony. “Stamps and Remembrance.” Available from
http://www.rpsc.org/Library/rememberance/remember.htm. Internet; accessed 2
Dec 2006.
Cale, David. “Vimy Ridge France 1917.” Available from http://www.agenet.co.uk/arts/poetry/vimy%20ridge.htm. Internet; accessed 2 Dec 2006.
Inglis, Ken. “War memorials: ten questions for historians.” Guerres Mondiales et Conflits
Contemporains 167 (July 1992), 5-21.
Macintyre, D.E. Canada at Vimy. Toronto: Peter Martin Associates, 1967.
McNaught, Kenneth. The Penguin History of Canada. London: Penguin Books, 1988.
Morton, Desmond and Glenn Wright. Winning the Second Battle: Canadian Veterans
and the Return to Civilian Life, 1915-1930. Toronto: University of Toronto
Press, 1987.
Nicholson, Gerald W.L. “We will remember…”: Overseas Memorials to Canada’s
War Dead. Ottawa: The Minister of Veterans Affairs for Canada, 1973.
Picard, Andréa. “Restoring Loss at Vimy.” Canadian Architect 05/06, 2005.
Polsson, Ken. “Chronology of Canadian Coins.” Available from
http://www.islandnet.com/~kpolsson/cancoin/can2002.htm. Internet; accessed 2
Dec 2006.
Prost, Antoine. “Monuments to the Dead.” In Realms of Memory. Pierre Nora, ed. New
York: Columbia University Press, 1997.
Sherman, Daniel J. The Construction of Memory in Interwar France. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1999.
Urquhart, Jane. The Stone Carvers. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Ltd., 2001.
18
Veterans Affairs Canada. “Vimy Memorial.” Available from http://www.vacacc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=memorials/ww1mem/vimy&CFID=888
5919&CFTOKEN=95126741. Internet; accessed 2 Dec 2006.
Winter, Jay. Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1995.
19